Melissa Kops is the Architect for the City of New Haven, CT. In addition to her involvement with the AIA CT Chapter, she is a board advisor at the CT Green Building Council and chairs its advocacy community. She founded and organized the Northeast Summit for a Sustainable Built Environment with the theme Health and Wellbeing in 2017, Social Justice in 2019, and Climate Action in 2021. She was awarded the Judy Swann Green Advocate in 2018 and Living Future Hero in 2020.
Amy Boyd is the Vice President, Climate & Clean Energy Policy at Acadia Center, based in the Boston office. She oversees Acadia Center’s work on advancing climate policy, electrifying buildings and transportation, and transitioning to clean energy sources throughout the Northeast. Amy holds Acadia Center’s seat on the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council, a stakeholder board that works with utilities to carry out their mandate to purchase all cost-effective energy efficiency. Prior to Acadia Center, Amy was an associate in the Environmental Practice Group of Foley Hoag LLP in Boston. Amy holds a JD cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law and a BA in Environmental Studies from Wellesley College.
Nick Jones is a Senior Energy Efficiency Consultant and the Residential New Construction Program Lead for Eversource’s energy efficiency programs. Nick has spent the bulk of his nearly 10-year career working with builders, developers, architects, design teams, and state and federal organizations to advance high performance building design and practice. Nick has served as presenter and moderator for several national energy efficiency conferences, and for the last several years has served as a judge for the U.S. DOE’s Housing Innovation Awards. Nick currently serves on the board of the CT Green Building Council (CTGBC), CT Passive House Alliance, and the Northeast Home Energy Rating Systems (NEHERS) Alliance. He holds a bachelor's degree in Sustainable Energy Studies from Eastern CT State University, and also holds a master's degree in Global Sustainability from Central CT State University
Jacob Lucas is the Director of Transmission System Planning at Eversource. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Master’s degree in Power Systems from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Transmission System Planning department at Eversource proudly serves as a catalyst for clean energy, decarbonization, and grid modernization. The team is innovating with some of the region’s most cutting-edge projects as well as supporting the development of Eversource’s offshore wind projects. In addition to his time at Eversource, Jacob worked at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C.